Viewfinder: Endless Abilities

You probably walked from your bed to the bathroom this morning without a second thought. But for people with physical disabilities, walking is a little bit harder to take for granted. When Zachary Bastian became a paraplegic after a dirt biking accident his sophomore year of high school, this became his reality.

On his blog, Bastian describes the hopelessness of post-accident life: “A year from the day that the accident happened my friend Eddy and I were talking in our last period class when he said, ‘Dude there’s waves today!’ obviously forgetting about my wheelchair. I said to him, ‘thanks for rubbing it in, Eddy.'” But after reading about Jesse Billauer, a quadriplegic who continued to surf even after his near life-ending injury, Bastian realized that he, too, could continue pursuing the sport he loved.

In Endless Abilities, a Kickstarter-funded video, Bastian and his friends travel across the country to document the stories of other physically disabled individuals who have found ways to live athletic lives in spite of their conditions. Watch the trailer. Get goosebumps; count your blessings; realize unforeseen possibilities. These are this video’s gifts.

In 2011, Jimmy Chin climbed one of the hardest peaks in the world, Shark's Fin on Mount Meru. What's more impressive is that he filmed the adventure, then turned it into a documentary that just won big at Sundance.